Tokyo,
Japan, July 23, 2013 – The Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) recently held
an opening ceremony for its new offices in Tokyo.

The opening of the office follows a decision
made by the FIVB Board Members, in particular FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graca F°, who
was committed “To build and add value to continental
confederations and national federations initiatives by applying FIVB’s
resources,to
ensure that the sport receives positive global perception.”

The AVC Tokyo office will now focus on developing the Asian market. A
meeting held on July 18 brought together many sponsors, cooperative companies and
other stakeholders.

The new President
of the Japan Volleyball Association, Dr. Yuichiro Hamu said, “It’s amazing. I’m
very excited now.This is a good way to start my mandate and I know that
the JVA will be great supporter and promoter to develop our sport in Asian and
Oceania countries,
especially in helping develop human and monetary resources for national federations in category
5.”

“We
will develop a project plan before the end of September and will set out to accomplish
all our goals,” said Mr. Kazuyuki Kojima, JVA Executive Board Member. "We
have 49 nations in national federation category 1 and 2 in Asia that are the targets of this
project."

“We
will have to first look into each federation’s demands and analyse them
practically and then make a proper plan for them,” said Mr. Atsushi Katoh,
Development Director of Tokyo Office. “Face to face communication with each of the developed nations involved
is very important and I need their passion to get involved,” he said."The office is going
to be a base to develop and carry out the necessary marketing in Asia."

The JVA is responsible for the overall functioning of the office and also
has a coordinator to work on increasing the popularity of volleyball in Asia.